Investment Management Firm Built by the Principle – ‘An Educated Investor is the Best Client’

For several years now, the Syms Corporation – a company specializing in designer clothing at bargain prices – has built a great reputation by living up to its own slogan and promise: “an educated consumer is our best customer.” Today, a New Canaan-based investment management firm is building a reputation on a similar premise – that the best client is an educated investor, one who truly understands the investment strategies being employed to manage portfolios and build wealth.

Catherine Avery Investment Management (CAIM), LLC is an investment management firm specializing in customized, fully diversified investment portfolios for private investors. Catherine Avery, the firm’s founder and owner, is a seasoned investment professional with over twenty-five years experience as a portfolio manager for major financial institutions including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and EF Hutton. Her experience spans from managing money for private investors to small institutions, endowments and mutual funds. At Morgan Stanley, Avery was the lead manager for over $750 million in mutual funds. She later moved on to the Van Kampen Equity Income team as part of a team managing over $14 billion in assets..

Her goal in founding CAIM is to empower investors to build a partnership with their portfolio manager. The firm has an absolute commitment to always doing what is in the best interests of the client. Among the many benefits of working with CAIM are a personalized focus, empathy, and integrity. Avery also has unique breadth and depth of expertise to offer clients. Avery explains the guiding principle that her firm is built on: “I see my role as that of an educator as much a portfolio manager. All too often, investors have little insight into how their portfolios are actually managed. They may know where their money is invested, but they leave the why to investment professionals. I believe that my clients should be well-educated about their investments, and I take the time with each client to explain investment strategies, to share insights about market trends and forecasts, and to ask and answer questions.”

For Avery, helping clients in a personalized way has always been the most appealing aspect of her profession. She began her career on Wall Street at the age of 18 and worked part-time at OppenheimerFunds while attending New York University. Through her education and work experience, Avery developed the skills necessary to succeed in an industry focused on quantitative skills and number crunching, while at the same time cultivating the people skills needed to gain investor trust and confidence.

Because Avery personally researches and manages the investment holdings of her clients, she provides information directly to her clients, as opposed to other investment management models in which information is filtered down through several channels and often reaches clients through a second or third party. Although Avery acknowledges that theory and speculation do play a role in the financial advising, she also believes that clients respond most favorably when presented with concrete and well-documented facts.

“Theories are good, but facts are better,” says Avery. “I have made certain facts part of my own promise to clients, and in so doing I have come up with an acronym that summarizes those facts.” The acronym FACTS represents:

F – Flexibility & Fees
A – Accessibility
C – Communication
T – Transparency
S – Security, Service & Success

Avery believes that these facts are the key ingredients to a positive investor-portfolio manager relationship. She also favors well-diversified portfolios that include mid-cap, large, and international stocks as well as some bonds. Although Avery has no one specific type of client, certain demographic groups tend to gravitate to her services. Many clients are from towns of New Canaan, Greenwich, Westport, and Stamford and most have had successful careers as professionals, businesspeople, or entrepreneurs.

“I find that for many people major life changes – getting married, having children, changing careers, going through divorce, becoming a widow, entering retirement, etc. – can create a lot of financial uncertainty and disorganization. I am especially drawn to these situations and I find it truly gratifying to help people restore a sense of order to their lives.”

As to the future, Avery sees her firm getting increasingly involved with socially responsible investing: “Alternative energy and green investing are hot topics that appeal to my clients, many of whom especially like the idea of combining investing savvy with a strong social conscience.”

In keeping with her theme of educating investors, Avery expects to be doing several speaking engagements in 2008. For more information about Catherine Avery Investment Management, or to arrange a speaking engagement, please visit: http://www.catherineaveryinvest.com/